‘The prince of batsmen’ or ‘just another of those Asiatics’?: Ranjitsinhji in Australia, 1897–1898

Abstract

This article is a study of how Australians responded to the visit of the Indian batsman Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji with the England cricket team during the summer of 1897–1898. Ranjitsinhji arrived as a cricketing celebrity with an unrivalled record of run-scoring and a reputation as England's premier batsman. However, he was an elusive figure who had carefully cultivated the extravagant, aristocratic lifestyle of an English ‘sporting gentleman’, balanced, paradoxically, with an equally constructed image of an exotic Oriental prince. The article surveys contemporary, metropolitan and regional colonial newspapers to explore popular representations of Ranjitsinhji in Australia. Initially, he received an ecstatic welcome. Many sections of the public lauded his brilliance as a batsman, particularly his daring and innovative stroke play. Others responded to his romantic mystique and viewed him as a successful product of the British imperial process of refashioning the Indian princes as exotic types. However, as the tour progressed, Ranjitsinhji came under criticism for his intemperate remarks about the behaviour of local crowds and the aggressive behaviour of opposition players. In the context of the colonies' progress towards Federation and the inauguration of ‘White Australia’, Ranjitsinhji's identity was interpreted increasingly in terms of his race and he became a politicized figure, drawn into debates about immigration, culture and national identity. The article concludes by suggesting that Australians' views of Ranjitsinhji were contested because their imagining of India itself at the end of the nineteenth century was fragmented.